Sam Believed Mother-In-Law Poisoned His Food: Insanity Defense

JOLIET, IL - A forensic psychiatrist who was involved in the notorious murder cases of Milwaukee cannibal serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and Naperville child killer Marilyn Lemak suggested that the Will County jury should find defendant Bahaa Sam not guilty by reason of insanity in the December 2012 bludgeoning death of Sam's 38-year-old wife, Nermeen.

The murder victim was beaten to death by Sam with a weightlifting bar. Sam is represented at trial by the Chuck Bretz Law Firm. Bretz and Neil Patel are handling the trial. They conceded that their client killed his wife in brutal fashion on Dec. 19, 2012. They contend he was legally insane at the time of the crime and that the jury should not convict him of first-degree murder.

On Tuesday, defense expert witness Dr. Carl Wahlstrom of Chicago was on the witness stand for several hours. He became interested in the field of psychiatry during the case involving Cook County serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who had killed more than 30 more than teenage boys and young men during the 1970s.

Wahlstrom told the jury he had been paid about $24,000, over the past five years, as a forensic psychiatry expert for Sam's defense. Dr. Wahlstrom also interviewed Sam in June 2014 for two hours as part of his work on the case.

Sam suffered from a major depressive disorder as well as psychosis, Wahlstrom told the jury.

"In my opinion, he was not being treated at the time of the death," Wahlstrom testified.

Starting around 2011, several of Sam's siblings as well as his wife were trying to convince him that he was mentally ill and that he needed to extensive care to help address his problems.

However, Sam remained defiant. Although he went to a number of psychiatry sessions, he began throwing his medications into the garbage and stopped meeting with the therapist, according to Tuesday's testimony.

Sam was distrustful of his wife and his mother-in-law's motives. He was convinced they were trying to poison him by putting poison into his food, Dr. Wahlstrom told the jury.

There was no evidence of this, it was all pure fantasy, the jury heard.

Sam, who lived in Tinley Park, was involved in a restaurant venture with several other people, but "he was asked to leave because of his inability to concentrate."

But Sam "believed that the business partners were stealing from him, that they were all against him," Wahlstrom testified.

Patel asked his witness whether Sam at one point began hearing voices. Yes, the witness testified.
"He heard someone talking into his ear, telling him, he's going to lose his business," Wahlstrom testified. "(But) he did not indicate any hallucinations."

In 2011 and 2012, Sam and his wife began to sink into a financial hardship. They were also raising four young children. He went on at least 10 job interviews in the months leading up to the murder, but all of his interviews were failures.

Sam stopped taking showers and bathing. He underwent a dramatic weight loss. He lost his appetite. His family members noticed he was staring at them and made inappropriate laughing outbursts, the witness testified.

"She noticed those changes over a two-year period," Wahlstrom said of Sam's sister.

But Sam, however, absolutely refused to believe that he was mentally ill and needed significant psychiatric help, Wahlstrom told the jury.

Sam was born and raised in Egypt and in Egyptian culture, a person considered psychotic "is someone that is a raving lunatic (who runs) naked in the streets, out of control. (They) will be noticed by others and not in a good way," Wahlstrom relayed of Sam's line of thinking.

At one point, defense lawyer Neil Patel made a reference to the classic 1975 movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Jack Nicholson as mental patient Randall "Mac" McMurphy and actress Louise Fletcher who played the villain role as Nurse Ratched.

After mentioning the famous movie, Patel asked the witness a couple of questions about lobotomies and electroconvulsive therapy. The questions were asked in the context of the dynmatics of the psychiatry profession in terms of helping the mentally ill get treatment.

"We're not doing lobotomies. ECT is still done," Wahlstrom told the jury.

And during Tuesday's testimony, Wahlstrom was asked repeatedly about Sam's delusional belief that his mother-in-law and his wife were trying to poison his food.

By that point, Sam "had become a completely different person. (His brother) indicated he was staying in his bedroom, doing nothing, refusing to get out of the house. (Sam) believed Noreen's mother was completely destroying their lives and that was affecting them."

What did Sam think of his mother-in-law, the woman he long suspected was poisoning his food?

According to Wahlstrom, Sam "referred to her as Judas the Iscariot, or the tricky widow."

The murder trial of Bahaa Sam is expected to wrap up later this week. The Will County State's Attorney's Office finished presenting their evidence last week.

Mugshot of Bahaa Sam via Will County Sheriff